1. Field of the Invention
The fruit of the plant is primarily used as fresh fruit for shipping. Also suitable for customer-pick and processing markets.
2. Description of Relevant Prior Art
‘Palmetto’ was selected as a single plant in 1985 at the Coastal Plain Experiment Station in Tifton, Ga. from a cross of ‘US-158’×‘TH-157’. ‘US-158’ is an F1 hybrid of ‘FL-4-B’ (V. darrowi) and a highbush blueberry (V. corymbosum). ‘TH-157’ was derived from a cross of highbush blueberry and ‘FL 63-4’, a complex hybrid of complex parentage. ‘Palmetto’ is a hybrid containing mostly V. cornymbosum with a small amount of V. darrowi. None of the lines used to produce this selection are patented. ‘Palmetto’ has been tested in a planting at Alapaha, Ga. since 1992, and was planted in other locations beginning in 2001. From a comparison with the popular variety ‘Star’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 10,675) at 3 locations in Georgia and one location in Mississippi, ‘Palmetto’ appears to be as widely adapted as ‘Star’.
The new variety has been asexually propagated on many occasions since 1985 by softwood cuttings. It roots readily from softwood cuttings and in all cases the clones propagated from cuttings have maintained the vegetative and fruit characteristics of the original selection.
‘Palmetto’ has been primarily compared with the standard southern highbush cultivars ‘Georgiagem’ (non patented), and ‘Sharpblue’ (non patented). Georgia producers have found it difficult to grow ‘Georgiagem’ and need earlier ripening cultivars. ‘Sharpblue’ also has not been widely grown by Georgia growers due to early flowering and protracted ripening. Over a 5 year period ‘Georgiagem’ yielded no fruit during the first week of May, whereas ‘Palmetto’ yielded on average more than 35% of its fruit during that time period. When the first 2 weeks of May are considered, ‘Palmetto’ ripened on average more than 75% of its fruit during that time, compared to only 38% and 51% for ‘Georgiagem’ and ‘Sharpblue’ respectively. ‘Palmetto’ yields overall were 37% greater than ‘Georgiagem’, but not significantly different from ‘Sharpblue’ over the 5 year period.
Average ratings of berry attributes and plant vigor for these 3 cultivars grown at Alapaha, Ga. over a 6 year period showed that ‘Palmetto’ exceeded the other cultivars with a value rating of 8.8 on a 1 to 10 scale compared to 7.0 and 6.8 with respect to plant vigor, and berry scar was superior with a rating of 8.5 compared to 7.0 and 7.8 for the other cultivars. ‘Palmetto’ was generally similar to the other cultivars for other berry attributes, except for berry size, which was smaller, but commercially acceptable. Thus, ‘Palmetto’ has good to excellent fruit quality, and outstanding plant vigor.
Flowering and ripening times are important for growers. Growers want fruit ripening to be early enough to offer a high value for the fruit, but flowering late enough to escape frost damage. Over a 6 year period, ‘Palmetto’ was in the middle of a group of cultivars grown at Alapaha, Ga. with respect to flowering date, yet, generally ripened the earliest.
To date, little or no southern highbush cultivars grown in Georgia are machine harvested. Data from a 1999 experiment comparing firmness of hand harvested and machine harvested ‘Palmetto’ and ‘Georgiagem’ showed that ‘Georgiagem’ had the typical response of a great loss in firmness of berries due to mechanical harvesting, whereas, ‘Palmetto’ appeared to remain firm when mechanically harvested.